The yeast infections that underly your UTI’s and infertility

Most women will suffer with a yeast infection (thush) and/or a urinary tract infection (UTI) at some point in their lives.

It can be a one-time thing that goes by itself, or it can be a recurring problem that doesn’t seem to get sorted no matter how much you ban sugar! This is a huge problem if you are trying to conceive because yeast infections affect your fertility. Not only that, recurring (or half sleeping) yeast infections make you prone to urinary tract infections and those too can make it very difficult to fall pregnant.

Antibiotics & anti-fungals bring temporary relief only for the symptoms to come back with a vengeance. Homeopathic remedies, however, can break the chain of these “genito-urinary” infections for good!

Resolve your yeast infections & improve your fertility.

Yeast infections (or thrush) are often called a fungal infections but that makes them sound way worse than they are! Yes, a fungus called Candida is involved but the truth is that everybody has this fungus in their bodies! The problem with a yeast infection, however, is that this fungus has overgrown and is taking over the crime scene.

When you know this, you can put 1 and 1 together: Treating thrush is not about killing all the Candida, but it is about restoring balance.

A yeast infection left untreated can lead to an overgrowth of bad bacteria leading to Bacterial Vaginosis (BV). If those bad bacteria travel up, they can cause urinary tract infections, cystitis, and at it’s worst: kidney infections. Both urinary tract infections & yeast infections, can drammatically lower your fertility.

Here is another important factor. If you have an overgrowth of candida, your man likely does too! That may be killing his sperm before it even reaches you.

In other words, sorting thrush or urinary issues is absolutely essential when trying to conceive.

Do I have a yeast infection, BV or a UTI?

It is not always easy to know what is causing the burning or itching, so here let’s have a chat about the stuff “down-there”!

Vaginal thrush or yeast infections have a set of very specific symptoms. You can have one of them or all:

Itching

Burning

Redness

Cracked skin & bleeding

Cloudy discharge that smells like yeast

With Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) you can have all or none of the symptoms of thrush, but the key difference is that there will be a “fishy smell” down there.

If you have a urinary tract infection (UTI), you can tell by usually a burning pain in the urethra (the bit you feel when you pass urine). It can be an ongoing pain, or it can be specific during or after peeing. Another symptom is that you may have a frequent urge to pee.

The symptoms of cystitis (bladder infection) usually will be all the UTI symptoms. However you will likely also have abdominal and/or lower back pain and usually your urine will be off. It may look cloudy, or smell very strong, or you may see red sand in it. It is not uncommon to feel flu-like with it, including chills and fever.

If you have a kidney infection, it can sometimes be painless with just an urge to constantly pee. More likely, however, you will have (one-sided) back pain (mid-back). Again you may feel flu-like and have a fever. The difference with flu that has back pain, is that with a kidney infection you will have all the UTI/cystitis symptoms as well, and the pain in your back can be worse during peeing.

To make it a little easier, here is an overview to help you recognize the picture of your symptoms:

Why anti-fungals & antibiotics don’t help in the long run

If you have any of the urinary infections or BV, it makes sense to use antibiotics right? Well actually… antibiotics do not just kill the bad bacteria, they kill all the bacteria.

That may mean, yes, that at first you are relieved of your symptoms. However, clearing the ground means there is room for new bacteria to grow and if you don’t replenish the good ones ASAP, the baddies will come back with their friends and you’re worse off than before. Not to mention, if the underlying problem is the Candida overgrowth that is not addressed, you will soon have a bad bacteria overgrowth again as well.

Antifungals for yeast infections may also seem to solve your symptoms. However, again if the environment is too nice for Candida not to be, it will just come back. Candida can also becoming resistant to the antifungals so it may not work in the long run at all. I have had several patients tell me they don’t help anymore.

The emotional root of yeast infections & urinary troubles

Before we get into how to get rid of these overgrowths, let me share something you may not have been aware of: the emotional connection!

Your physical symptoms and emotional well-being are connected, after all you are one person; mind, body soul. Your body as such is not just a machine unconnected to your mind & emotions. Have you ever heard of stress headaches? Right! What about people that get heart disease after grief? Exactly! Or what about people getting the flu right after getting bad news or students suffering from diarrhea before their exams?

The question with yeast infections is, what emotional state could possibly underlie them?

Seeing that thrush is in fact an overgrowth of Candida, we need to look at issues with boundaries.

What is going on in your body that it allows the Candida to overgrow? Do you allow people, events or demands to “overgrow” in your life? Do you say “yes” all the time or do you not share your emotions? Chances are you recognize yourself in this as it has been a pattern I’ve recognized with my patients too.

If your thrush has developed into a urinary infection, you may have been slacking on your boundaries for a while.

Everyone needs boundaries and if you don’t have them, you will likely feel used and angry about it. Anger is a good thing, it tells you something is wrong and needs to be fixed! The thing is, if you do not fix it and shove anger back down, your body will react for you! Usually suppressed anger surfaces in the form of liver symptoms, gallbladder issues or in urinary problems. Have you never heard of the expression “being pissed”? Enough said!

You may say; “well I get thrush/urinary issues after sex, that has nothing to do with emotions or boundaries”. My reply would be: “a man entering your body has nothing to do with boundaries?”. If your symptoms get worse after sex, examine your relationship and see if anything needs fixing.

Or look back on the past, could your body be remembering something that you don’t want to?

How to get rid of yeast infections & UTI’s for good

Apart from the emotion homework you can do to see how your boundaries are, there are a few practical things you can do too. The whole idea is that your body become a more pleasant environment for good bacteria to live, and a nasty environment for bad bacteria & fungus:

Repopulate your gut with good bacteria by taking probiotics, or specific probiotics for the vagina that containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 (eg Optibac’s For Women)

Eat products with lactic acid (eg Molkosan by Vogel). Lactic acid is used by good bacteria to reproduce and it kills bad bacteria

Avoid soaps in the intimate areas as this changes its pH and disturbs the microflora balance

Wear cotton underwear

Pee before and after sex & wash yourself with water especially when using products like Preseed because such lubricants as well as sperm make the vagina more alkaline than it should be

Drink more water

And of course: consider how you deal with boundaries in your life and if there is any “overgrowth” of commitments & relationships that you need to weed out

Homeopathic treatment for yeast infections & UTI’s

Homeopathy is amazing in sorting out genito-urinary infections because it addresses all of you. In other words, it does not just try to kill off the candida or bad bacteria, it addresses why you are letting these bad guys overgrow in the first place!

To date, I have not had ONE case (even the worst ones!) that ended up in an antibiotics or anti-fungals course! Now that’s a bold statement right? So trust me, you can get this sorted naturally too.

One remedy I like to prescribe to patients suffering with yeast infections is a combination of Candida, Borax & Natrum Phosphoricum in a 6c for them to take twice daily. A homeoapthic pharmacy can combine this for you. This combination helps your body:

Work on pushing back the candida

Improve the pH of your vagina so that candida & bad bacteria don’t want to live there anymore

Alongside these remedies, I treat the root cause of my patient’s genito-urinary infections. Whether those are emotional reasons for the overgrowth or possible a heriditary susceptibility, or both. Because the contraceptive pill can make you more prone to yeast infections as well, detoxing the pill is often part of the plan too.

*I am not affiliated with the companies of the mentioned products, I just like them because either patients or myself have good experiences with them. You can get all products mentioned from these companies on line, the Natural Dispensary or Helios Pharmacy, or from Amazon. *